The idea behind Copa Para Quem was born in late 2013 when reporter Maryse Williquet went to Brazil. There, she discovered a country buzzing with excitement and getting ready to host a historic event. However, she soon learned about another reality – one that the host country was trying to hide. That’s when she decided to embark on this crazy project. Switch decided to follow her and help her turn it into a reality.
Maryse Williquet stayed for five months in the city of Fortaleza, the capital of one of the poorest states in Brazil. It gave her enough time to establish solid relationships with the “undesirable ones”, that the authorities seek to hide by kicking them out of the city, but also with those campaigning for the event to be managed differently. The Copa Para Quem movement was just being born and we were seeing it in real time.
We chose to approach this issue through the web documentary format, allowing the audience to discover it at its own pace, one theme at a time, with the possibility of deepening the experience. We also produced a 26-minute linear format for theatrical and TV screenings.
Discover the full project : www.copaparaquem.com
The project was quickly awarded a grant from the Fund for Journalism. To support this grant, we created a crowdfunding campaign on KissKissBankBank. That’s when we realised how much the audience was interested in this topic. Our campaign soon reached its goal; a genuine community was created around the project.
Copa Para Quem has been a real public success thanks to our community and relentless promotional work. The web documentary has been viewed more than 100,000 times, with an average session duration particularly long for this type of format. The linear documentary has also been screened several times, with or without debates. Finally, thanks to its media coverage, Copa Para Quem helped to provide an alternative look at this hugely popular event.
With the participation of the Fund for Journalism, the Belgo-Brazilian Committee, Pianofabriek, CNCD-11.11.11 and the newspaper Le Soir.